Polychoron 0.0.7 alpha released
This update to Polychoron makes a lot of changes.
Overall difficulty has been adjusted to make the game a bit more forgiving in the first levels. Many of the changes also aim to make run & gun play style more feasible. You will still likely get best scores with the careful approach and sneaking behind corners (I don't plan to change this) but now you will survive a little longer if you choose to fly straight into action.
Another problem this update tries to address is people not knowing how to play. The game now shows a guide overlay to new players that explains the controls and HUD items. I have also made small visual changes here and there to make it more obvious how things work. I have intentionally been avoiding a separate tutorial that some have suggested. I believe this game is so simple that it shouldn't need a tutorial.
Last but not least, this update finally adds configurable controls. This is probably the single most requested feature so far.
Here's full list of changes since version 0.0.6:
- Added new patrolling enemy type shooting slow projectiles.
- Added two more random decorative meshes on maze walls.
- Added notification sound on HUD messages.
- Added ship start-up animation sequence.
- Made laser beams cause the same amount of damage over time independent of frame rate.
- Improved particles emission at laser beam contacts.
- Limited sentry gun field of view to 180 degrees while looking for targets.
- Sentry guns looking for target turn to direction of damage if shot.
- Made sentry guns a bit easier to destroy.
- Mines turn towards player and blink when triggered.
- "Fixed" weird white pixels wandering on screen at level start on some PCs.
- Rotate projectiles as they move.
- Added slightly different wall colors in parts of the maze to ease navigation.
- Added varying shininess to wall textures.
- Fixed spark particles not fading out smoothly.
- Emit colored spark particles on projectile hits.
- Flash laser screen white and play a sound when its power box is damaged.
- Flash all power boxes of a laser screen white when one of them is damaged.
- Place laser screen power boxes a bit closer to it.
- Fixed dark blue HUD text using GLES2 renderer.
- Added HUD scale adjustment in settings menu.
- Hide inactive teleports completely to prevent confusion.
- Changed default (not inverted) pitch control direction to match most other games.
- Added control bindings menu for remapping controls.
- Fixed settings not being saved if closing menu instead of leaving settings page.
- Added sounds to menu interaction.
- Add pitch inversion quick toggle by F2.
- Added controller guide overlay (press F1 to toggle).
- Show completion page with statistics on death without high score too.
- Added a short fade in animation when opening menu.
- Use different target detection sound pitch for different enemy types.
- Keep enemy weapon damage constant between levels (does not increase anymore).
- Halved initial sentry gun projectile speed.
- Activate level completion teleports in the unlikely case that level contains no enemies.
- Added lightning symbols to power boxes.
- Apply small impulse from projectiles to hit objects, including the player.
- Added jammer module power-up that disables all enemies for a while.
I'm a little worried about the amount of changes. I have tested all versions but after playing the game so much during development, I have become blind to some of the issues, especially from a new player point of view. So please let me know if you encounter bugs or weird behavior.
See Polychoron game page for more information. Direct downloads have been updated on Itch.io. Android version update has been uploaded on Google Play and will be available shortly.
Posted on 2020-10-30